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Griffin Husbandry
Overview: The Griffin is the bane of shepherds and herders the world over. They nest in cliffs and hard to reach places that provide good views of the surrounding lands. Ideally a griffin nest will be on the border of grasslands or other open terrain allowing them to hunt easily over long distances. Griffins are especially social creatures and seldom are found alone. Hunting in prides, griffins will herd their prey into killing zones where some of the hunters who specialize in the taking of prey pick off the weak and old. For this reason many shepherds keep an escape animal, often a goat, with them that they maim and leave for the griffins so that they can get their herd to safety. Griffins are occasionally domesticated and trained. They are valued for their speed and when used as a mount make for highly effective long range scouts and messengers. Many noble houses pride themselves in their griffin pride and commanders from powerful houses often ride griffins during battle to ensure they can see the movement of their troops. Social Structure: Griffins are a matriarchal animal with family groups of related females and adopted males. A typical griffin pride will have 4 to 7 griffinesses and 2 to 4 griffins. Griffins are larger and slower than griffinesses and typically spend their time guarding the prides territory while the faster and more agile griffinesses primarily hunt for the pride. All of the griffinesses in a pride are typically related, being either mothers, sisters, daughters or cousins. The griffins in the pride will have been accepted by the griffinesses over time. Once young griffins reach maturity they will be exiled from their pride and will become nomads for a time. Often sibling pairs will stay together as they wander and will both be accepted into the same pride. Less often a griffiness will become a nomad, she is far less likely to be accepted into a new pride. Lifecycle: Griffin chibs hatch near the end of winter 38 days after being laid. For the next 11 weeks the chibs will stay in the nest and be fed by their parents. During those 11 weeks the chibs will grow from 10 lb to 50 lb and at the end will be able to fly for the first time. This corresponds to the increase in small game during spring. The juvenile griffins will spend the summer learning to hunt from their pride mates and will practice on rodents and other small animals. By the end of summer the juvenile griffins will have reached 150 lbs and will begin praying on small predators such as foxes and bobcats. Griffins reach full size (~500lb) between two and two and a half years. The griffins remain a part of their pride until they reach reproductive maturity at age four or five when they leave and become nomads for at least a portion of their lives. It is at this point the griffinesses that become nomads often leave as well. The typical griffin can live to be 50 years old, in that time griffinesses will have up to 20 chibs. Training: Griffins are prized as mounts for their agility, speed, and fighting prowess. Griffinesses are favored when being trained for scouts because they are slightly smaller and faster. War mounts are often griffins because their increased size and strength allow them to fight better on and near the ground. In contrast griffinesses excel at aerial combat due to their agility and speed. Training of a griffin starts at hatching. A trainer who was the first thing that the chib saw after hatching will have a much easier time training and will instill in their mount a much stronger loyality. Training of juvinal griffins is much harder and more unpredictable. The final source of trainable griffins are nomads. To train a griffin nomad a trainer must earn its trust over several years. The success rate for doing so is low, but some of the most famous griffins were nomads. Some believe that nomad griffins are not actually being trained but are accepting the trainer into a new pride. Taking a griffin from his or her pride ensures that they will not be able to be trained. Often such griffins succumb to sickness. Griffin training initially starts much like falconry with a focus on controlled aerial hunts. This stage of training takes about two years. Around the age of two, griffins are introduced to a saddle and initial mounted training begins. At first this training is limited to short flights, but as the griffin nears maturity the training is extended to longer and longer periods. An adult griffiness can fly for three hours at a time with a rider before she needs an hour rest. She can repeat this three times a day for nine total hours of flight. A griffin can fly for four hours with a rider before needing a rest but can only repeat this twice a day. Both griffins and griffinesses can be equipped with specially crafted barding. A griffin’s barding usually is light when scouting but griffins and griffinesses are strong enough to fly with plate barding if the need arises. Category:Lore